Consumer demand for minimally processed seafood that retains its sensory and nutritional properties after handling and storage is increasing. Nevertheless, quality loss in seafood occurs immediately after death, during processing and storage, and is associated with enzymatic, microbiological, and chemical reactions. To maintain the quality, several synthetic additives (preservatives) are promising for preventing the changes in texture and color, development of unpleasant flavor and rancid odor, and loss of nutrients of seafood during storage at low temperature. However, the use of these preservatives has been linked to potential health hazards. In this regard, natural preservatives with excellent antioxidant and antimicrobial properties have been extensively searched and implemented as safe alternatives in seafood processing, with the sole purpose of extending shelf‐life. Natural preservatives commonly used include plants extracts, chitosan and chitooligosaccharide, bacteriocins, bioactive peptides, and essential oils, among others. This review provides updated information about the production, mode of action, applications, and limitations of these natural preservatives in seafood preservation.

With the constant increase in protein demand globally, it is expedient to develop a strategy to effectively utilize protein, particularly those extracted from plant origin, which has been associated with low digestibility, poor techno‐functional properties, and inherent allergenicity. Several thermal modification approaches have been developed to overcome these limitations and showed excellent results. Nevertheless, the excessive unfolding of the protein, aggregation of unfolded proteins, and irregular protein crosslinking have limited its application. Additionally, the increased consumer demand for natural products with no chemical additives has created a bottleneck for chemical‐induced protein modification. Therefore, researchers are now directed toward other nonthermal technologies, including high‐voltage cold plasma, ultrasound, high‐pressure protein, etc., for protein modification. The techno‐functional properties, allergenicity, and protein digestibility are greatly influenced by the applied treatment and its process parameters. Nevertheless, the application of these technologies, particularly high‐voltage cold plasma, is still in its primary stage. Furthermore, the protein modification mechanism induced by high‐voltage cold plasma has not been fully explained. Thus, this review meets the necessity to assemble the recent information on the process parameters and conditions for modifying proteins by high‐voltage cold plasma and its impact on protein techno‐functional properties, digestibility, and allergenicity.

For the past two decades, consumer demand for minimally processed seafoods with good sensory acceptability and nutritive properties has been increasing. Nonthermal food processing and preservation technologies have drawn the attention of food scientists and manufacturers because nutritional and sensory properties of such treated foods are minimally affected. More importantly, shelf‐life is extended as nonthermal treatments are capable of inhibiting or killing both spoilage and pathogenic organisms. They are also considered to be more energy‐efficient and to yield better quality when compared with conventional thermal processes. This review provides insight into the nonthermal processing technologies currently used for shelf‐life extension of seafoods. Both pretreatments such as acidic electrolyte water and ozonification and processing technologies, including high hydrostatic pressurization, ionizing radiation, cold plasma, ultraviolet light, and pulsed electric fields, as well as packaging technology, particularly modified atmosphere packaging, have been implemented to lower the microbial load in seafood. Thus, those technologies may be the ideal approach for the seafood industry, in which prime quality is maintained and safety is assured for consumers.

Bioactive peptides (BPs) derived from animal and plant proteins are important food functional ingredients with many promising health-promoting properties. In the food industry, enzymatic hydrolysis is the most common technique employed for the liberation of BPs from proteins in which conventional heat treatment is used as pre-treatment to enhance hydrolytic action. In recent years, application of non-thermal food processing technologies such as ultrasound (US), high-pressure processing (HPP), and pulsed electric field (PEF) as pre-treatment methods has gained considerable research attention owing to the enhancement in yield and bioactivity of resulting peptides. This review provides an overview of bioactivities of peptides obtained from animal and plant proteins and an insight into the impact of US, HPP, and PEF as non-thermal treatment prior to enzymolysis on the generation of food-derived BPs and resulting bioactivities. US, HPP, and PEF were reported to improve antioxidant, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory, antimicrobial, and antidiabetic properties of the food-derived BPs. The primary modes of action are due to conformational changes of food proteins caused by US, HPP, and PEF, improving the susceptibility of proteins to protease cleavage and subsequent proteolysis. However, the use of other non-thermal techniques such as cold plasma, radiofrequency electric field, dense phase carbon dioxide, and oscillating magnetic fields has not been examined in the generation of BPs from food proteins.